File or binder



(No Model.)

W; H. PORTER.

FILE 0R BINDER.

No. 440,499. Patented Nov. 11, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

VILLIAM HARLEY PORTER, OF LIMA, OIIIO.

FILE OR BINDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 440,499, dated November 11, 1890).

Application filed May 16, 1889. Serial No. 311,183. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, YVILLIAM HARLEY POR- TER, acitizen of the United States, residing at Lima, in the county of Allen and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Files or Binders for Newspapers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in files or binders for newspapers, and its obj eat is to bind together a number of newspapers into a book or package of convenient size for distribution to agents in such a manner that one or more papers may be torn or removed therefrom without displacing the remainder, and so that those so removed for sale at retail will, by the operation of removing them from the file, be mutilated or marked in such a manner as to prevent their being returned to the publishers by such distributing agents as unsold papers. This imposition is very widespread, and to prevent it some publishers have resorted to the plan of printing upon a corner of the margin of the paper a request that the purchaser will, after buying the same, tear off such corner, so as to mutilate the same and prevent its return to them, as aforesaid; but this plan is open to the objection thatits eflicieney depends wholly upon the compliance with this request. Myinvention entirely obviates this objection by causing the very act of removing the paper for sale to put the desired mark upon it.

I attain my object by means of a clasp or hinder made of heavy paper, bristol board, or

other suitable material, which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a detached view of my said file or hinder before the flap forming a part of the same is gummed down, as hereinafter described and Fig. 2 is a view of the same as it appears after that operation. Fig. 3 is a view of said file or binder as it appears when attached to a package of papers so as to bind them together in the manner described.

Similar letters represent similar parts throughout the several views.

A represents a clasp or binder, which is made of the material mentioned and so folded that its lips a a will project over and clasp the blank margin of the papers, so as to hold snugly within them a package of papers of the desired thickness. The clasp is held in place and the package of papers bound to gether and retained firmly within it by means of metallic staples B B, which are driven through the clasp and papers and clinched by suitable machinery. The upper lip of said clasp is made wider than the lower one, as shown in the figures, the same being provided with a flap b, so that after the staples have Go been clinched this flap may be folded back upon the clasp and gummed down upon it over the clinched ends of the staples; or, if preferred, held in place over them by a separate smaller paper or seal pasted across both 6, flap and clasp, thus forming a seal, so as to indicate whether or not the staples have been opened or the clasp tampered with. In practice said binder is most conveniently applied to the upper right-hand corner of the package of papers. When so applied,it forms a file or binder which holds the papers together in a neat, compact, and easily-handled package which contains a known number of papers, and thus greatly facilates the counting of the same, and from which as the papers are sold they may be separately torn out, leaving the remainder of the package compact. The removal of a paper from the file so tears and disfigures the margin of the same as to permanently mark and identify it as a paper which has been sold out of the original package, so as to prevent the agent handling the same, if so disposed, from afterward returning and obtaining credit for the same as an unsold paper.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is-- 1. In combination with a series of sheets, a holder provided with the jaws between which the sheets are clasped, a fastening device passed through the jaws and contained sheets, and a seal applied to the outer side of one of the jaws over the end of the fastening device, substantially as described.

2. In a newspaper-file, the body A, provide with the two jaws adapted to clasp the sides of the package of papers,in combination with the staples B, passed through said jaws and too the contained package and having the ends of its legs bent down upon the body, and the seal Z7, covering said bent ends of the legs, laterally upon the body in position to be covsnbstantially as described. ered by the lip, substantially asdescribed.

3. The package, the body A, having the two jaws, one of which is provided with the lip b, WILLIAM HARLEY PORTER 5 flexibly connected thereto, in combination Witnesses:

with the fastening device passed through said J. G. LAMIsoN,

jaws and the package and having its end bent A. J. MORRIS. 

